This invention relates to machines for applying dressings such as conditioning oil to the surface of bowling lanes.
Prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,855 assigned to the assignee of the present invention discloses a bowling lane conditioning machine utilizing a highly accurate, single head dressing dispenser that travels back and forth across the lane as the machine travels up and down the length of the lane. By controlling the times when the dispensing head is off and on, the pattern of dressing applied to the lane surface is likewise controlled. In the ""855 patent such control is achieved by an electronic control system that includes a programmable logic controller, as well as other electronic components.
While machines incorporating the invention of the ""855 patent have been highly successful, some users prefer a less sophisticated machine that does not require the level of skill necessary to operate and maintain a computer-based machine. Yet, there is a strong desire to retain the precision and accuracy associated with the single head design and the metering system that supplies dressing to the single head.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a simpler, non-computer based lane maintenance machine that eliminates the level of sophistication associated with a computerized machine without sacrificing significant precision and accuracy. To this end, the present invention utilizes as the heart of the control system a mechanical control device carrying control structure thereon that is detectable by a sensor associated with the single dispensing head so that as the dispensing head moves back and forth across the lane during travel of the machine along the length of the lane, the sensor is responsive to the control structure to turn the dispensing head on and off in a manner that produces a predetermined pattern of dressing on the lane surface. In a preferred form of the invention, the control device is indexed one increment at the end of each traverse of the dispensing head along its path of travel so as to present a new portion of control structure on the device to the sensor. Preferably, the control device is in the form of an elongated, cylindrical member extending parallel to the path of travel of the dispensing head and rotatable through an indexing increment about the longitudinal axis of the member during each indexing action. In one preferred embodiment, the sensor is in the form of a proximity sensor traveling with the dispensing head and responsive to metallic strips on the peripheral surface of the control member. The strips extend along the length of the member for predetermined distances and are slightly spaced apart circumferentially around the member in accordance with the particular dressing pattern to be laid down.
In one preferred form, the metallic strips take the form of metallic tape, and the member comprises a cardboard core having an outer cardboard sleeve wrapped with a sheet of self-adhering plastic material to which the strips of metallic tape are applied. The outer sleeve with its plastic wrapper can be removably mounted on the core such that, when the control member is removed from the machine, the existing sleeve may be slipped off the core and replaced with a different sleeve having a different pattern of metallic control strips thereon so as to provide a correspondingly different pattern of dressing for the lane surface.